Tuesday, October 14, 2014

American Seafoods to pay $1.75M in scale scandal

Here's the press release.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Wesley! I'm surprised you haven't put up anything about Sen. Begich proposed rider to the Coast Guard Bill which would put Amendment 8O trawl fleet allocations into Federal statute. Begich is getting crap about it, so I imagine it will not show up now until after the election. Such a carve-out (and Dan Sullivan had that terminology right in the Kodiak debate) will be worth tens of millions to the Amendment 80 trawl fleet. All so these guys can build new boats with guaranteed fish to catch in the future? Nice. Direct allocations to these guys will make by-catch reductions in halibut, for example, extremely difficult to achieve.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Anonymous,
This is interesting, because you or your other At Sea Processor Association- AFA Pollock gang, sent the anonymous trash out about the Amendment 80 fleet wanting to stop you from invading their fleet. But when it comes to American Seafoods, the largest quota holder of APA, you don't mention they payed 1.7 million for stealing fish.

Yes the APA Seattle Pollock gang, under Ted Stevens, American Fisheries Act got multi-billion dollar exclusive quota allocations, but if someone else asks for the same thing, it is not proper? Talk about hypocrisy of the highest level.

The allocation to Amendment 80 fleet does not change and is exactly what exists as approved during the public process that created it. Unlike the Pollock industry that received a multi-billion dollar gift by the American Fisheries Act that never went through a public hearing process. All of a sudden the "public fish resource" was privatized and given to a bunch from Seattle, who own it today. Maybe they should pay some form of lease fee for the public resource. It is interesting that Ted Stevens fishery aide went to work for this same group who made billions from the action.

Anonymous said...

Who said the AFA's pollock allocations was proper? Nobody here. It was BS, just like this Amendment 80 carve-out will be, if Begich can sneak it through.

Anonymous said...

Your missing the point, the Pollock allocations were done in a secret meeting with Ted Stevens.

The Amendment 80 allocations were done over a two year time period, after hundreds of people participated in the process. Just like the Halibut and Sable Fish individual fishing quota's were granted to all those folks who are now clipping their coupons in Hawaii ,Florida and Seattle.

Anonymous said...

Ted Steven's fishery aid gets a quarter million dollar/year job working for APA (pollock C/P lobby group) immediately after Ted hands over a billion $/year fishery to the APA Pollock guys in Seattle. Then, Madsen, who spent 6 years as Chair of the Council handing as much fish quota as time permitted to the very same APA pollock guys, takes her takes her quarter million dollar a year job for APA immediately after her term ends. The APA has made their point clear: Whomever sits on the council and gives them fish year after year, gets the quarter million$/year job working for them the day they leave the council. Maybe that explains why the council gave the pollock C/P fleet a huge chunk of halibut at the Nome meeting this summer, after the American Seafoods boat Katie Ann wiped out all that halibut in the Tlas fishery at the beginning of the year- without a single opposition vote from anyone on the council. Heck, it wasn't a serious fisheries management vote by council members, it was a job interview.

Anonymous said...

Halibut and sablefish IFQ program was developed by the NPFMC, not as an add-on to an unrelated Congressional bill. A bit of a difference,no?

If everything is so up-and-up why did the Council, and various CDQ groups weigh in against Begich attaching allocations to the Coast Guard bill? Why haven't the WA. Senators been pushing this too? Its just an end-run around the process, just like the AFA guys did.

If you guys want IFQ's in your fishery, go to the Council, like everyone else in the country has to.

Anonymous said...

Gee, I wonder if American Seafoods has the gall to steal millions of pounds of fish right out from under the observers nose, they would have the gall to ..

........ under-report halibut, crab, Chinook salmon and chum salmon??